In an elaborate and thinly veiled attempt to escape discipline at a traffic stop last week, a Hunan man first threatened to hang himself and, when that failed, feigned a heart attack.Footage from the scene shows the driver pitching a fit at the cop about to write him up, then using a cord suspended from the back of his truck as a makeshift noose. After the officer swiftly thwarts his half-baked suicide attempt, the man crumples to the ground and clutches his chest in apparent pain.

In a touching, if head-scratching gesture, the cop can be seen offering the motorist a handful of cookies while he rests in his wife’s arms. When he proceeds to call the driver’s bluff and dials 120, the driver makes a sudden and miraculous recovery. Theatrics aside, the paramedics dispatched to the scene gave him a clean bill of health.The incident ended with the cop meting out a 200 yuan fine to the driver for violating vehicle standards, according to The Paper. Though unlikely to achieve the same fame that some of his linguistically talented peers have of late, the cop’s patience and suspension of disbelief are just as praiseworthy.While the driver’s valiant effort was ultimately unsuccessful, 200 yuan seems a small price to pay for the kind of exposure that many an amateur actor can only dream of. One Chinese media account even suggested that his performance was Oscar-worthy.By Henry Knight [Images via The Paper]